Randolph Stow’s Followers (36)

Randolph Stow

Born

in Geraldton, Western Australia, Australia

November 28, 1935

Died

May 29, 2010

Genre

Literature & Fiction

edit data

Born in Geraldton, Western Australia, Randolph Stow attended Geraldton Primary and High schools, Guildford Grammar School, the University of Western Australia, and the University of Sydney. During his undergraduate years in Western Australia he wrote two novels and a collection of poetry, which were published in London by Macdonald & Co. He taught English Literature at the University of Adelaide, the University of Western Australia and the University of Leeds.
He also worked on an Aboriginal mission in the Kimberley, which he used as background for his third novel To the Islands. Stow further worked as an assistant to an anthropologist, Charles Julius, and cadet patrol officer in the Trobriand Islands. In the Trobriands he suffered a mental Born in Geraldton, Western Australia, Randolph Stow attended Geraldton Primary and High schools, Guildford Grammar School, the University of Western Australia, and the University of Sydney. During his undergraduate years in Western Australia he wrote two novels and a collection of poetry, which were published in London by Macdonald & Co. He taught English Literature at the University of Adelaide, the University of Western Australia and the University of Leeds.
He also worked on an Aboriginal mission in the Kimberley, which he used as background for his third novel To the Islands. Stow further worked as an assistant to an anthropologist, Charles Julius, and cadet patrol officer in the Trobriand Islands. In the Trobriands he suffered a mental and physical breakdown that led to his repatriation to Australia. Twenty years later, he used these last experiences in his novel Visitants.
Stow's first visit to England took place in 1960, after which he returned several times to Australia. Tourmaline, his fourth novel, was completed in Leeds in 1962. In 1964 and 1965 he travelled in North America on a Harkness Fellowship, including a sojourn in Aztec, New Mexico, during which he wrote one of his best known novels, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. While living in Perth (WA) in 1966 he wrote his popular children's book Midnite.
From 1969 to 1981 he lived at East Bergholt in Suffolk in England, his ancestral county, and he used traditional tales from that area to inform his novel The Girl Green as Elderflower. The last decades of his life he spent in nearby Harwich, the setting for his final novel The Suburbs of Hell. He last visited Australia in 1974.
His novel To the Islands won the Miles Franklin Award for 1958.[1] He was awarded the Patrick White Award in 1979. As well as producing fiction, poetry, and numerous book reviews for The Times Literary Supplement, he also wrote libretti for musical theatre works by Peter Maxwell Davies.
A considerable number of Randolph Stow's poems are listed in the State Library of Western Australia online catalogue[2] with indications where they have been anthologised.
...more

Combine Editions
Randolph Stow’s books

Average rating: 3.87 · 1,844 ratings · 262 reviews · 22 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea 3.82 avg rating — 695 ratings — published 1965 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	To the Islands by Randolph Stow, Anthony J. Hassall (Foreword by) 3.84 avg rating — 323 ratings — published 1958 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Midnite: The Story of a Wild Colonial Boy by Randolph Stow, Ralph Steadman (Illustrator) 4.09 avg rating — 252 ratings — published 1967 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tourmaline 3.88 avg rating — 251 ratings — published 1963 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Visitants 3.98 avg rating — 109 ratings — published 1981 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Suburbs of Hell 3.73 avg rating — 107 ratings — published 1984 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Girl Green as Elderflower 3.63 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 1980 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Land's Meaning: New selected poems by Randolph Stow, John Kinsella (Editor) 4.11 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1969 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Outrider by Randolph Stow, Sidney Nolan (Illustrator) 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Randolph Stow…

Quotes by Randolph Stow (?)

“I wonder what I’m going to be when I grow up,’ Rob asked himself.

‘Well, not a film star,’ Mike said. ‘And not an all-in wrestler. Why don’t you be a drunk? You don’t need any talents for that.’

‘It’s got to be something in your blood,’ Rob said. It was his view that all history was a matter of blood.

‘That’s a lot of bullshit,’ Mike said. ‘Hell, Australia was built by people who didn’t know who their grandparents were. You can be anything you want to be, and you ought to be what you want to be, not what your grandpa was.’

‘Well, what are you going to be?’ Rob demanded… ‘A drunk,’ said Mike. ‘I haven’t got any talents.”
― Randolph Stow, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea

tags: humor

3 likes

“I find that there is no speech that is not soliloquy. And yet, always, I sense an audience.”
― Randolph Stow, Tourmaline

tags: solitude

1 likes

“Personally, I’d sooner be a cabbage than a crackpot. Cabbages have the respect of their neighbours.”
― Randolph Stow, The Girl Green as Elderflower

tags: cabbage, crackpot

1 likes

See all Randolph Stow's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Aussie Readers: Annual Aussie Author Challenge 2013	632	381	Dec 21, 2013 09:08PM
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Kids book - bushranger? Horse named Silver? [s]	13	44	Dec 28, 2013 12:34PM
Reading with Style: SP 2014 RwS Completed Tasks - Spring 2014	1052	208	May 31, 2014 09:05PM
Netherlands & Fla...: Lente 2014 - Rondje om de wereld (8)	73	113	Jun 19, 2014 09:59PM
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. book about a man who is a water diviner like his father was. He gets married and leaves rural England to go and find water in Australia. [s]	13	94	Mar 11, 2015 12:15PM
Pick-a-Shelf: Coralie's going Book Hunting	12	21	Oct 02, 2016 12:16AM
The Seasonal Read...: Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	2555	478	Nov 30, 2016 09:00PM

More…

Randolph Stow’s Followers (36)

Randolph Stow

Combine EditionsRandolph Stow’s books

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Randolph Stow’s books